Spider-Man needs to be celebrated properly in the next game

As Marvel begins to wrap up the Multiverse Saga in the MCU it’s likely the company will want to veer away from the use of multiple universes for the subsequent years. That makes this the perfect time to give us a proper Spider-Verse game.

The hunger for Insomniac’s Spider-Man franchise remains strong and the webhead never seems to go out of fashion. If anything, his place in the Marvel sphere is more stable than ever and this is in part to the universe(s) around the character. Whether we’re watching Peter Parker or Miles Morales, it’s a joy to swing about New York and thwack villains about.

Take a look at the trailer for Venom: The Last Dance below

However, there’s still a huge amount of untapped potential, at least for video games.

A recent rumour that has been doing the rounds is that Xbox is reportedly looking to revive the Activision titles of old, trying to license Deadpool, but also Marvel Ultimate Alliance. This is surely a show of confidence from Xbox that Marvel games will still sell like hot cakes, and if we look to the near future we can see this is true with Insomniac working on Marvel's Wolverine and Arkane Studios bringing us Blade.

While it’s likely we’ll see Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 at some point, I’d really like to see something that celebrates Spider-Man as a character and give us a sort of ‘greatest hits’ of his stories while taking us on a tour of variants. It’s clear there’s a lot of love for the Spider-Verse films and the opportunity to dive into the comic boxes and root around for great stories would bring in a wealth of players. Especially if it’s a bolder take on the popular hero.

This could be a multi-studio project spanning different genres, mechanics, and visuals. Imagine swinging through New York one minute as Peter Parker is a traditional style similar to Marvel’s Spider-Man before passing the action to Miles Morales with an animated style akin to the films. Hell, abandon the open world, give us linear level progression with cinematic cutscenes of each variant passing information, and the narrative baton, to others.

Give us a Spider-Man Noir point and click level where we’re looking for clues, a 2099 section with vibrant neons and ultra-modern surroundings, before shifting to a 2D side-scroller for someone like Spider-Gwen, with huge comic book panels and cartoon action, maybe a top-down area with Penny Parker in her mech, scuttling around.

Older projects like Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions got close to something like this and that was before the recent boom in Spidey nostalgia that came from the MCU appearances and the welcoming love for Tom Holland’s performance and Miles’ multiverse hopping. Stuff him and Tobey and Andrew in there too, splash some cash and get some voice work going.

Before Marvel starts canning aspects from the branching timelines and multiverse shenanigans, let’s have a proper explosion of support for Spider-Man, because you just know that focus will soon start to shift to characters like the X-Men when the Mutant Saga begins in the MCU. Since Disney took over, everything has to be tied together to signal boost each other and now the timing is right.

I’m not sure who I’m pleading with at this point, I just want it to happen. I’d happily play a Spider-Man game that has 50+ variants to play as, all with different abilities and powers that compliment each other and the story. I will now go and set up a circle of candles, place some key Spider-Man comics in the centre, and start manifesting this into a reality. I mean, in another universe this probably already exists, right?